Given the recent technological advancements witnessed in the domains of communication technology and consumer electronics, personal communication devices such as mobile phones and home entertainment devices such as televisions are being continuously redesigned to incorporate a wide range of functionalities. Availability of a wide range of previously unavailable functionalities has transformed televisions from electronic devices that merely relayed the broadcasted content to intelligent electronic devices that make an informed decision about the content to be relayed to the users, based on the choices and preferences of the users.
It has been established that despite the upsurge on online entertainment, televisions and the conventional broadcasting medium with which the televisions coexist remain the preferred choice of entertainment for a majority of the users. Given the fact that the television remains the most preferred choice of entertainment for a majority of users, product manufactures and service providers prefer using television broadcasts as a medium for advertising their products and services respectively.
However, one of the challenges that most of the advertisers come across while broadcasting advertisements on a televisions channel is ensuring that the advertisements broadcasted during the broadcast of entertainment program do not exhibit a negative impact on the users' overall television viewing experience. Further, it is also necessary for the advertisers to decide on the best possible positioning of advertisements within an ongoing television program, by taking into consideration the level of relevance between the advertised products/services and the television program. Further, the advertisements would be more effective if they are telecasted only after determining whether a user has actually exhibited interest in a television program that is at least partially relevant to the advertisement. For instance, advertising ‘beauty products’ to a user who has exhibited a keen interest in watching ‘beauty pageants’ might turn out to be an effective and beneficial advertisement strategy.
Similarly, television viewers are likely to positively respond to advertisements or any secondary content broadcasted on a television, only when the advertisements/secondary content are broadcasted in an unobtrusive manner and in a manner so as to not affect the overall television viewing experience. Typically, advertisements are broadcasted by inserting advertisement slots in the broadcast schedule for television programs. Further, any secondary content, such as promotional otters corresponding to a television program, hyperlinks for providing a feedback on a television program, hyperlinks for completing a monetary transaction for purchasing a product/service described during the television program, are superimposed in real-time on the display of the television program. To prevent the superimposed secondary content from obstructing the display of the television program—the primary content—thereby hampering the television viewing experience of the users, certain prior art solutions envisaged transmitting secondary content to the users via either social media feed or through a dedicated web-page/dedicated mobile application. However, transmitting secondary content to the users via either social media feed or through a dedicated web-page/dedicated mobile application requires the users to avail a dedicated internet connection, and non-availability of an internet connection or intermittent internet connectivity would hamper the users' accessibility to the secondary content.
Therefore, there was felt a need for a system and method that transmits secondary content to companion device associated with users in an unobtrusive yet efficient manner, but without necessitating the users to acquire a dedicated internet connection for viewing/consuming the secondary content via the companion device.